Chicago Mayor Blames Richard Nixon for Windy City's Murders in 2024?!, Gen-Z's Obessions with CD's & Print Books?!, 17-Year-Old Basketball Player Biggest Story of Paris Games? (The Five for 07/12/24)
Plus, a heist movie set during the 1992 LA Riots. Why Johnny Cash's final performance is trending.
Hey, welcome to The Five.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Social media was abuzz this week over a Wall Street Journal article (paywalled) about the Boomer generation spending their money on themselves, which is the thing they’re best at…other than not letting go of political power.
Hey, it’s all good for Boomers to party it up in their final years, right?
Sure, if you ignore the fact that their Millennial children are not getting present grandparents, and the economy has magically aligned for Boomers to live high on the hog while younger generations struggle.
While other generations are struggling to get by, boomers are seemingly living better than ever.
A May analysis from Bank of America on consumer-spending habits found boomers were outspending other generations on travel and dining out. And why shouldn't they? According to the Federal Reserve, baby boomers own more than $78 trillion in assets — that's around half of all wealth in the country.
But while they're busy spending their money, their millennial children feel left behind. Leslie Dobson, a psychologist in Los Angeles, said many of her millennial clients were dealing with feelings of abandonment and resentment toward their boomer parents.
"It is a really common struggle," she told Business Insider. "You have children, and it feels even more like an abandonment that they've chosen their life over meeting their grandchildren and building these relationships."
"There's almost like this three-fourth life crisis that they're in," Dobson added of typical boomers. "And they're really looking at this as, 'Oh, my God, my life's almost over. When is my last day, and how am I going to live my best life?'"
I’ve heard more than one YouTube influencer claim there are now “two Americas,” one of people with stocks and Bitcoin and multiple streams of income…and another America of “wagies” just barely getting by.
Perhaps a better way to understand “two Americas” is that The Boomers racked up an ungodly amount of debt while they controlled politics (note: they STILL control politics). Now, they’re dispersing their personal cash, not to help their kids and grandkids as generations past have, but on experiences and luxuries.
There are two Americas…one is the generation who screwed up the national deficit, and won’t be around to deal with the consequences.
And the other America? The ones who are left holding the bag, wondering about a financial future where the second biggest line item in the federal budget is interest on the national debt.
We now pay $2.4 billion per day on the interest on the federal debt.
“But see, there is joy and revelry,
slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep,
eating of meat and drinking of wine!
“Let us eat and drink,” you say,
“for tomorrow we die!”-Isaiah 22:13, 740 BC
And also,
Boomers, 2024
[two]
This one took me a minute to realize it wasn’t parody. After more than 100 people were shot over the 4th of July weekend in Chiago, Mayor Brandon Johnson blamed the Windy City’s murder epidemic on…a President who died before the internet was in most homes.
From a press conference, according to Newsweek:
"Black death has been unfortunately been accepted in this country for a very long time. We had a chance 60 years ago to get at the root causes. And people mocked President Johnson, and we ended up with Richard Nixon. I'm going to work hard every day to transform this city. That's what it takes to build a better, stronger, safer Chicago."
Before we dive into Nixon, let’s check out that alleged hero of Civil Rights, Lyndon Banes Johnson.
Lyndon Johnson said the word "n*gger" a lot.
In Senate cloakrooms and staff meetings, Johnson was practically a connoisseur of the word. According to Johnson biographer Robert Caro, Johnson would calibrate his pronunciations by region, using "n*gra" with some southern legislators and "negra" with others. Discussing civil rights legislation with men like Mississippi Democrat James Eastland, who committed most of his life to defending white supremacy, he'd simply call it "the n*gger bill."
Then in 1957, Johnson would help get the "n*gger bill" passed, known to most as the Civil Rights Act of 1957. With the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the segregationists would go to their graves knowing the cause they'd given their lives to had been betrayed, Frank Underwood style, by a man they believed to be one of their own. When Caro asked segregationist Georgia Democrat Herman Talmadge how he felt when Johnson, signing the Civil Rights Act, said "we shall overcome," Talmadge said "sick."
Wow. That’s quite the politician to praise, Mayor Johnson.
Meanwhile, the Richard Nixon Foundation responded via X on 37th President’s record:
In 1971, the Nixon administration developed a plan to carry out the 1954 SCOTUS decision in Brown v. Board of Education to desegregate all schools in the South. In 1969, 64% of Southern Schools were segregated. By 1974, 8% were segregated. Done effectively and peacefully.
From 1969 to 1972, federal funding for civil rights programs grew from $75 million to more than $600 million, the equivalent of more than $3.4 billion today.
Nixon initiated the Emergency School Aid Act with $1.5 million to help end school segregation and pay for the promotion of interracial experiences among children where racial isolation existed.
Nixon issued an executive order calling on federal government agencies to apply equal-opportunity policies to every aspect of federal personnel policies and practices.
Nixon allocated $12 million for research on sickle-cell anemia, a blood disorder that afflicts one out of every 500 black children, with the hope of decreasing that number.
From 1969 to 1971, the government’s federal purchases from black-owned businesses increased more than 900 percent, from $13 million to $142 million.
Mayor Johnson has SIXTEEN BILLION DOLLARS and FORTY THOUSAND EMPLOYEES at his disposal.
If he is unable to orchestrate positive changes in the city (lower crime rates, more jobs)…who do you think is more likely to be at fault…
A) Mayor Johnson
or
B) A guy who died the year the movie Lion King was in theaters?
[three]
The kids may just be alright. Gen Z is now saving ALL forms of physical media.
Generation Z has unexpectedly become the primary driver behind the rapidly growing analog music and print book economies in the U.S. and U.K. While buying record and CD players, vinyl, CDs, and print books may be an act of nostalgia or an old habit for Gen Xers and those before them, it is an act of identity assertion, innovation, and a point of differentiation for the under-25s. It is also an act of defiance in the face of the formless digital world and a cry for respite from the enormous noise perpetuated by the 24/7 social media cycle.
The vinyl record industry has enjoyed a resurrection largely driven by Gen Z. Between 2006 and 2022, record sales in the U.S. grew from $14.2 million to $1.2 billion. In the U.K., annual vinyl LP sales reached 4.3 million in 2019, a rise of over 2,000% on 2007. 2023 saw the industry’s 16th year of consecutive growth with sales reaching a new high of 6.5 million, deemed by experts to be fuelled by 16 to 24-year-olds rather than middle-aged men, as previously.
CD sales have also enjoyed decade-long growth in the U.S. Increasingly attracted to all things touchable, Gen Z music fans have taken up CD collecting as a hobby. Displaying CDs in creative ways has become a form of self-expression. They are also 33% more likely to buy artists’ apparel than the general U.S. population.
Due to the national debt, the most Gen-Z may ever own is a CD collection (see story 1 if you skipped it), so display those discs with pride, kids.
[four]
The most unlikely potential superstar of the upcoming summer Olympics…is a kid from a town of 3,200 in Maine.
And the crazy thing is…he’s not even going. Cooper Flagg blew up on social media this week after video surfaced of him scoring on some of the biggest names in basketball…and he can’t even vote in this year’s Presidential election.
Flagg, who will turn 18 on December 6th, was placed on the “US Select” team, essentially the younger players for NBA superstars to work out against before departing to Paris.
UPDATE: Flagg is out of Olympic contention due to an injury…but by all accounts, we’re probably looking at the next Caitlin Clark here.
And the fact that all athlete fame is measured against a WNBA rookie…shows just how quickly the Iowa native has changed the sports world.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
Prime Video let loose of some details for season 2 of Rings of Power, the Lord of the Rings show that cost a bajillion dollars for season 1, to pretty mixed results. Based on the appendices to Tolkein’s famous novels…a lot of fans of the books and original films hated this show…I’m a bit more charitable. Hoping a new season can see the series correct course and get closer to the feel of the epic trilogy. We’ll find out how good (or bad) this is on 08/29.
First photos were released for Landman, the new Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, Tulsa King) show starring Billy Bob Thorton (Tombstone, Sling Blade), Demi Moore (John Hamm (Mad Men, The Town)
Lamorne Morris (aka Winston from New Girl) will join Nicholas Cage in Spider Noir, which “tells the story of an aging and down on his luck private investigator (Cage) in 1930s New York, who is forced to grapple with his past life as the city’s one and only superhero.” It’s a strange one, to be sure…but I’m pretty pumped. No release date yet.
Since there was some buzz online about the 21st anniversary of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I’m going to go ahead and link to my article for Relevant Magazine, which compares the film to the American Revolution, which is my favorite thing I ever wrote in my previous career in magazines.
Seriously, Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightly are stand ins for John and Abigail Adams, and Capain Jack Sparrow is a fictional Benjamin Franklin…please, click this link and give it a read :)
(Side note…I was with the mag for 13 years, before being released when the publication took a far left political turn…for not accepting Karl Marx as my personal Lord and Savior).The Yellowstone effect of reviving the Western continues. If you’re not familiar with the term “Spaghetti Western,” it refers to American Western movies shot in Italy, by Italian directors…because it was a cheap place to film with a close-ish look and feel of the American west, and the investment was low, the movies didn’t have to do particularly well to make money. The first ever Spaghetti Western, 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars (originally starring Clint Eastwood), is getting a remake…once again to be shot in the Italian countryside on the cheap.
Woah. Since when are movies previewed a YEAR out from release? There’s plenty to get hyped for over the next 12 months with Brad Pitt (Legends of the Fall, Inglorious Basterds) as a guy who goes real fast. See it the summer of 2025.
Gladiator II sounded like a really stupid idea. Maybe the movie is, but you can’t tell from this excellent trailer. See it in November. Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, The Last of Us) and Denzel Washington (Training Day, Man on Fire) look amazing here, and Connie Nielson (Wonder Woman) reprises her role from the original film, released in 2001.
Putting a heist movie in the middle of the 1992 LA riots is a really cool idea, and it’s nice to see Tyrese Gibson due something other than race a muscle car across Antarctica, or whatever is happening in the Fast & Furious saga these days. Scott Eastwood (Suicide Squad, Fury) and the late Ray Liotta (Goodfellas, Field of Dreams) round out the main cast here, in what is likely the final time we’ll see the latter, who died in 2022, on screen. See it in August.
[music]
Last week marked the anniversary of Johnny Cash’s final performance (July 5, 2003). Just 70 days later, J.R. Cash exited this world and rejoined his beloved June.
The whole performance is well worth your time, but it’s his intro to “Ring of Fire” that pierces the heart:
“The spirit of June Carter overshadows me tonight. With the love she had for me and the love I have for her, we connect somewhere between here and heaven. She came down for a short visit, I guess, from heaven to visit with me tonight to give me courage and inspiration, like she always has.
“I thank God for June Carter and I love her with all of my heart. I would like to do a song that she wrote that she was extremely proud of.”
Album links: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music
Tennessee-based rapper nobigdyl. originated on a CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) record label…but apparently didn’t find much of an audience there. He rebranded as an indie rapper…and recently won the prestigious NPR Tiny Desk Fan Contest.
dyl’s latest album, the people we become, is highly recommended if you’re a fan of conscious/backpacker hip hop.
Until the next one,
-sth